Elisabeth in TANNHÄUSER

BBC Scottish Symphony at the BBC Proms

“But the star performance of the evening was Heidi Melton’s Elisabeth. You could sense the house holding its breath each time this young American soprano delivered an aria, so perfect was her sound, and so refined her artistry; her duet with Pohl, with the pilgrims’ chorus in the background, was beautiful beyond words.”-Michael Church, The Independent

“Melton’s first appearance, when she greets the hall in which her beloved will soon sing again, was moving in its sheer joyfulness and her singing retained this simple radiance throughout the performance.”-Jane Shuttleworth, Bachtrack

“The ample-voiced Heidi Melton sang Elisabeth’s hymn to the Virgin of the Jungfrau with chaste nobility and shining tone.”-Rupert Christensen, The Telegraph

“That said it was Heidi Melton’s Elizabeth which proved the highlight in vocal terms. Right from her greeting at the start of the second Act, she conveyed the joy yet also the poignancy of one who was previously betrayed and whose fear of betrayal is not easily overcome. Less wilful than Senta and less unworldly than Elsa, hers is the most conventional but also the most compassionate of Wagner’s earlier female roles – not least in her dialogue with Wolfram in the third Act, when the comprehension that Tannhäuser has not returned with the Pilgrims effectively seals her fate. In her assumption of the role, Melton amply secured the listener’s empathy – and as Wagner-singing per se, this was as good as it gets in the present era.”-Richard Whitehouse, Classical Source

“Here in the Wartburg, cleverly paralleled with the Albertine colosseum as the hall's motifs flashed up on the ever-helpful strip at the back, we met Heidi Melton’s Elisabeth. Luminous with the upper-register big guns and a sympathetic actress…”-David Nice, The Arts Desk

“But when it was good, it was very good and there was a fine line-up of singers, with several of the principals making their BBC Proms debuts. Heidi Melton was a vocally pure and dramatically expressive Elisabeth…”-Simon Thomas, What’s On Stage

“We have to wait until the second act to hear the Elisabeth, a role here sung by Adler Fellow of San Francisco Opera, soprano Heidi Melton. Her “Dich, teure Halle” was preceded by an orchestra that found itself so almost together. Melton has a big voice, as her opening of “Allmächt’ge Jungfrau” showed, but one with a pleasingly fresh tone. She was a believable Elisabeth, also, excelling in her placatory passages towards the end of the second act.”-Colin Clarke, Seen and Heard International